PARADISEC, the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures, has put out its second call for papers for its conference to be held 2-3 December 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. Get the details here.
Archive for the ‘events’ Category
Call for papers: PARADISEC
19 May 2013Findings from Annatuinniniq Uqausittinik Conference
7 May 2013The Annatuinniniq Uqausittinik Conference was held in Kangiqsujuaq, Canada, from 16 to 18 April.
Focused on Inuktitut (ike), the conference discussed the need for an action plan to save Inuktitut. There was also a youth panel discussion that revealed a generational gap, such as youth who want modern terminology and elders who have trouble understanding the English vocabulary and grammar that youth use when speaking Inuktitut.
Among the findings of the conference:
- An Inuktitut language authority is needed,
- More interactions between youth and elders are needed, and
- More training is needed for teachers
See “Nunavik conference seeks action plan to save Inuktitut” for more details and the Avataq Cultural Institute Facebook page for Inuit culture and language.
Launch of the RUIL in Australia
3 May 2013The University of Melbourne has recently established the Research Unit for Indigenous Language (RUIL), the first of its kind in Australia.
The focus of the RUIL is to understand the nature of indigenous languages in Australia and to address indigenous needs and language issues. They are incorporating a sociolinguistic approach.
Last December, they blogged about the “Our Land Our Language” report, which was tabled (proposed) to the national parliament last September with a recommendation of bilingual education. See “Academics urge government to heed Indigenous language report.”
As part of the RUIL’s launch, they have scheduled a talk by Bruce Pascoe on 16 May.
For the process involved in creating the “Our Land Our Language” report, see also “Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre testifying for palawa kani” and “AU government hears how children light up when learning Yawuru” on this blog.
Latin contest
1 May 2013High schools in the US recently competed in a Latin competition that included grammar, geography, Greek derivatives and vocabulary.
The contest is called a “certamen,” a Latin word meaning “competition.”
Although this year’s contest questions have not yet been posted, you can see the questions and answers from past years at the Texas State Junior Classical League website.
For a list of many of the students and other details, see the article “Local students prove Latin is no dead language” in the Westlake Picayune.
Endangered Languages Week 2013 – ELP
30 April 2013The Endangered Languages Project is gearing up for Endangered Languages Week from 20 to 28 May in London.
The full program has yet to be released, but see some of the highlights at Celebrating our Sounds, Signs and Songs, including a debate on language endangerment by high school students.
Irish Language Day
26 April 2013On 18 May, the Department of Culture and Media will hold its sixth annual Irish Language Day at Marylhurst University.
Bob Burke, Marylhurst Irish instructor and vice-president of the North American Association for Celtic Language Teachers, will be at the language celebration. Read his blog entry on Irish at “Irish as an endangered language,” where he talks about a family receiving a stipend to raise their children in Irish and cites census statistics about Irish (gle) use in Ireland.
Tribes go to Las Vegas to learn about tech
25 April 2013To learn how technology can help save their languages, some tribes sent members to Las Vegas in February.
The article “To save endangered languages, tribes turn to tech“* gives few details about the meeting, but does briefly mention Cherokee (chr), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago (win)) and Pit River (Achumawi (acv)).
Also mentioned is Thornton Media, a company that has developed a number of apps and software programs for language revitalization. According to their PDF, they have apps released for 14 languages so far and are working on apps for 12 others. See also Luiseño on Nintendo under Development and RezWorld Demo – Task-based Language Instruction for mention of Thorton Media on this blog.
* There seems to be a glitch with the Boston Globe website. If you get an error, try reloading.
Talk on minority language rights in Romania
24 April 2013Today, Lilla Balázs held a seminar on the protection of minority languages in the EU, with a specific focus on Romania. According to the Ethnologue, Romania has 22 living languages, of which five are institutional, 15 are developing, one is vigorous and one is endangered.
See the announcement of the seminar, with a link to the abstract at “Minority Protection beyond EU Conditionality: The Implementation of Minority Language Provisions in the Case of Romania.”